A/N: Hello. Happy reading. Thank you guys so much for sticking with this story.

Brothers protected their sisters. That was what his father instilled in him. He tried so many times to do just that but everybody around him refused to let him. They called him a kid, treated him like a liability and an idiot who couldn't grasp basic concepts. It was insulting and limiting to say the least. The one time in his life he felt strong enough to make a difference, to prove he was worth something other than being used as a bargaining chip, he had nearly been driven out of his mind with bloodlust to kill any and all vampires. And since that time he hadn't felt the same kind of invincibility.

But he had gotten a taste of it the other night and fueled by that taste, he wanted more.

Jeremy Gilbert curled his fingers around the glass of water nearly shattering it to pieces. He furiously rubbed the growing stubble around his jaw. He felt he had aged ten years in one night.

Looking up, he spotted one of the girls he hooked up with over the summer. She squinted at him as if trying to place him. He felt his cheeks warm and he averted his gaze a little.

"Hey, Jer what's up?"

Jeremy jerked at the sound of Alaric's voice. He watched his one-time guardian pull out the other chair at the high top table.

"I need you to help me find Elena," he began without preamble.

Alaric had barely gotten one ass cheek on the stool. He had been debriefed on what happened. "Jeremy…"

"No, I don't want to hear any excuses, Rick. She's my sister, and yeah I get what she did to Bonnie is fucked up. I don't need anyone to tell me that, but I can't leave her to suffer in the bottom of wherever the hell Bonnie's dumped her. You gotta help me. Please." Jeremy's bitter tone broke and splintered into the scared pitch of a fifteen year old boy who lost his parents.

This was all just a mess to Alaric. He remembered the first time seeing Elena thinking she was a beautiful, doe-eyed girl with her head in the clouds. He never expected to come to care for her and think of her, not like a daughter, maybe a niece. He had wanted to protect her because he knew that's what Jenna would want, yet becoming so deeply embroiled in the girl's private life—there was little to change about it. He always figured Damon's feelings for Elena would lead her down a destructive path. Where they were today, he never saw it coming.

Then there was Bonnie. A girl turned woman who remained a virtual stranger to him despite everything they had gone through individually and as a group. She watched her grandmother, father, and mother die right in front of her eyes. Had to fight and collaborate with people who disrespected every chance they got. Regardless of the crushing blows and humiliation she suffered, Bonnie never put herself above anyone, or refused to help because of what she had gone through. Alaric admired that about her and couldn't exactly fault Bonnie for the decision she made.

He sighed heavily, "From my understanding if anyone tries to free her they'll share the same fate. That's not something I think either of us can afford to test, Jer."

"Great," the bitterness was back.

"You remember what happened to you on that island, yes or no?"

"It won't be like that."

"You don't know that. Look, I don't agree with what Bonnie's done, however I get her point and Elena made a choice. Would you have an easier time accepting it if Bonnie had pressed charges, had Elena arrested where she'd probably go to jail for the rest of her life. It's no different."

"Bonnie can't play god with people's lives," Jeremy hissed vehemently.

"Don't forget you killed an innocent man once to save your sister."

That cooled Jeremy's horses as he was forced to remember Chris, one of Klaus' hybrids. The heart breaking irony, Chris had helped Stefan rescue Elena from Klaus who kidnapped her while she battled the side effects of the hunter's curse. He didn't hesitate to literally stab Chris in the back (and decapitate him) in order to become the next hunter in order to free Elena from the curse. Other than becoming slightly unhinged and obsessed with killing vampires, he suffered no real repercussions from his actions.

Did he have any moral right to interfere or was it obligation and familial duty to do everything in his power to make things right for his sister? Jeremy didn't know anymore. The lines and ethics had been blurred, skewered, edited, and muddied so many times to justify murderous behavior that what constituted right and wrong was adjusted daily. He had been complicit, had done his part to be judge, jury, and executioner of a man who had done nothing but be born a werewolf and unfortunately land on Klaus' radar who then forcibly made him into something else.

A muscle thumped in Jeremy's jaw as his muscles went lax.

"Give it time, Jeremy," Alaric eyed him sympathetically. "Maybe Bonnie will have a change of heart."

"She's not going to change her mind about this."

"Bonnie changed her mind on giving you another chance didn't she?"

Jeremy sat moodily in his seat feeling impotent once again. "I'm beginning to believe if I hadn't been the only person to see and talk to her while she was a ghost, we would never have gotten back together. She ends up locked up in a prison world with Damon and look what they are now."

Alaric didn't know what Bonnie and Damon were though he had speculated.

"She can't see it but she's going to be another Elena once Damon gets done with her."

"Somehow I don't think she's in any danger of that happening," Alaric said and flagged down a server.

Jeremy scoffed.

"Seriously, Jeremy, leave this alone. The best thing you can do for your sister is get the hell out of town before you get sucked in any deeper. There's a more immediate threat looming. We don't have time for carrying out personal vendettas." Even as he said it, Alaric knew he was essentially talking to a brick wall.

Gilberts were their own worst enemies.

Alaric saw Jeremy's cheeks become molten. He had a very good idea of who just walked through the door. He moved to diffuse a potential blowup. "Though you're severely underage and you've already started destroying your liver anyways, how 'bout we go back to my place and crush a few beers."

"Nah, I'm good." He said to Alaric though his eyes were on something else. That something else being Bonnie and Damon entering Skull Bar hand-in-hand.

It was like adding insult to injury seeing the two of them look so pleased and happy. Here he had spent his first Christmas without his sister who was rotting in a submerged safe, and the fucker who broke her heart and the chick who imprisoned her were out and about like gotdamn royalty. Jeremy hated the way Bonnie leaned into Damon. Hated the sight of the vampire saying something that made her laugh, and not her usual laugh that was more of a guffaw, but a laugh that had her rearing her head back, exposing her tonsils and pretty pink gums.

Neither one took notice of him seething, or couldn't feel the hole he was burning into them. But then Bonnie turned her head. Their eyes met and Jeremy wouldn't lie and say his heart didn't stop. It paused and that pause lengthened until he was sure he was two seconds from losing consciousness. He waited for a flicker of remorse, regret, shame anything.

Jeremy got absolutely nothing.

Bonnie returned her attention to Damon who helped her with her coat.

As much as his knuckles hurt from how tightly he had balled his hands into fists, little by little the pressure released and Jeremy's shoulders slumped.

Right on the heels of their arrival, Stefan appeared and made a beeline for his brother. He gave Bonnie a brief hug but she excused herself a second later leaving the two brothers alone. Jeremy wished he could hear their conversation.

"I have your gift if you want it," Damon tried for nonchalance but couldn't deny he was a bit…and he hated to use this word but giddy. Or maybe just extremely optimistic Stefan would like what he got.

Stefan couldn't help it. He stared at his brother in shock. "You got me an actual gift?"

"I should resent that tone. I've given you things in the past." Stefan shot him a look that said 'bitch please'. "All right maybe in theory. Joking aside, after you restored my baby you think I'd leave you hanging?"

Touched but too manly to show it, Stefan nodded. "You didn't have to get me anything."

"Stop with the false modesty. I got you something. It's a done deal and you will like it. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Stefan saluted. "So where is it?"

"Check the inner breast pocket of my coat."

Stefan did as instructed and pulled out a key that dangled from A Virginia is for Lovers keychain. He hitched a thick, dark brow. "Ummm…"

"Do you remember your Honda CB77 I crashed out of spite for one reason or another?"

"We don't talk about that remember?" Stefan had bought that classic motorcycle as a gift to himself for being ripper-clean for ten years.

"Yeah," Damon extended the word, "well after much searching and heckling, I found a seller and…your replacement should be here no later than Monday."

"You're serious?"

"As a heart attack."

Stefan tucked his lips in to stifle the excited whoop he really wanted to let out. Clutching the key more securely, he shook his head a little blown away Damon would do this. For him. They had never been big on giving each other anything but grief. Restoring Damon's car had been his way of coping; he hadn't done it expecting to get anything in return with maybe the exception of inner peace that had been extraordinarily hard to come by. Survivor's guilt and all that. He never thought his brother would do something that put his happiness first. Stefan was almost tempted to ask Damon to show some ID.

"Thank you," Stefan moved in and clasped his brother in an unexpected bear hug.

Feeling immensely pleased and just beneath that weirdly embarrassed, Damon hugged his brother back.

Bonnie was missing the moment as she was on the phone with Caroline.

"How is she doing?"

Caroline's voice was hollow and tired but carried a hint of positive assurance, "Her surgery was successful. They're waiting for her to wake up to give her an assessment to see if there's any brain damage since she lost a massive amount of blood and had lost consciousness for a few minutes. So, she's not out of the woods, but they believe her prognosis should be good."

"That's a relief to hear. How are you holding up?"

"Tired. Frustrated. Pissed. The usual emotions that come when your parent's been attacked and you weren't there to do a damned thing about it."

"You're there now and that's what matters."

"I know."

"Liz is strong and she'll pull through this…Have you thought about giving her some of your blood?"

"The thought has only crossed my mind a million times since I got that phone call. I'm too paranoid because—well even that can backfire."

"Yeah." No one needed to say both young women were thinking about Caroline's stay in the hospital their junior year and what happened. "That aside, I just want you to be as careful as you can, Caroline. Try not to leave the hospital, and don't go exploring through town. We don't know what the revenants are doing and if they can sense when someone supernatural is around. More than likely they can, so just…"

"I know. Trust me. I don't have any plans to leave this hospital until my mom threatens me to and not even then."

The girls shared a quiet but sad laugh.

"So did you get anything good for Christmas?" Caroline switched gears needing the change in conversation to distract from her present situation.

Bonnie began smiling as she looked down at her ring. "I did. I'll send you a pic. The other present, I don't think you want to see that."

"Eww."

Bonnie laughed, imagining Caroline's nose wrinkling with disapproval.

"So, you and Damon did more than kiss under the mistletoe," the blonde muttered drily.

"Something like that."

"Well as much as I don't like your bedfellow, I am grudgingly happy you had someone to spend Christmas with. I know how hard this time of year's been for you in the past."

"Yeah, it's sucked, why lie. But it's a new day and the past should stay in the past. Oh and FYI I'm going to be sending some flowers your mom's way so be on the lookout for that. Do you need me to pack you a bag?"

"Oh, god yes! Thank you. I look a hot mess and there are some cute doctors floating around."

Bonnie giggled. "All right. Consider it done. I'll text you so you can meet me at the border."

The two talked for a few more minutes before ending the call. By the time Bonnie left the corridors that led to the bathrooms she received a text message.

Bonnie returned to the table. "We have someone joining us," she informed.

Damon lifted his head, "Who?"

"Me."

Both Damon and Stefan stared at the guy who, only a few nights ago, saved Bonnie's life.

Her brother. (Possibly)

Ezra drew attention. His shadowed, angular jaw, dark sensual eyes, and well-fitted attire had women craning their necks and jockeying for a better look. He smiled and one woman was overheard saying: "I just got pregnant."

Seeing Damon reminded Ezra of the business he concluded just a week or so ago with Lily Salvatore. She hadn't contacted him for any more favors and he hoped she wouldn't.

Nevertheless, he wasn't here because of Damon and whatever family drama he might have going on. He was here because Bonnie invited him, which surprised the hell out of him.

I don't want to use you how I've been used where the only times we talk is when I need something. So…I'm headed out to Skull Bar tonite. I want you to come if you can.

That had been the text message he received a little over an hour ago. His social calendar had a hilarious amount of open vacancies, but he hadn't told Bonnie he was coming until he pulled up in the parking lot.

Ezra stood some distance away from the tableau. Bonnie stared at him less like an experiment this time and with less wariness. He wasn't surprised by Damon's continued open hostility. Hell, he found it strangely comforting because it let him know where they stood. There was no speculating.

The two men sized one another up and found the other wanting.

"Thanks for coming," Bonnie offered Ezra a smile she hoped didn't come across as patronizing or fake.

"Thanks for inviting me."

"I guess I should make some introductions. You already know Damon and this is his brother Stefan."

"Nice to meet you," Ezra said. "We kind of already sort of met at Caroline's Christmas party."

"Right. Well, in any case nice to meet you again." In typical Stefan fashion, he stuck out a hand for the interloper to shake. Would it kill you, little brother to not to be so damn gracious and welcoming to total strangers? Damon internally sniffed. But that had been Stefan's custom when they were human.

Damon pulled his lips back from his teeth a little when Ezra squeezed Bonnie's shoulder affectionately.

"I would ask how you guys' Christmas was but I don't want to assume you celebrate."

"Mine was great," Damon chirped. "What about yours?"

Ezra shrugged. "Quiet. So what are we doing? Drinking? Playing pool? Both?"

"Both," Bonnie jumped in. "We should grab a table before they run out."

"Cool."

"Babe," Damon pulled Bonnie back as Stefan and Ezra headed to the gaming area of the bar. He threw his meaty arm across her tiny shoulders. "Not to sound like an asshole, but what the hell is he doing here?"

"You failed at not sounding like an asshole, FYI." Damon pressed his lips together. "He's here because there are things I need to know, and this is a public place, and," she stressed emphatically, "I have two vampires on my side in case things go left. Although I'm not sure how effective you or Stefan would be against someone who can teleport, and knows an insane amount of spells. But on top of everything else, Damon, he saved my life. I can't dismiss that."

"No one is asking you to but that doesn't make you obligated to spend time with him."

"True. But he's helped me when he wasn't obligated. Just have my back and try to keep an open mind and some distance. Don't do that 'I'm on to you' shtick that you usually do."

"I don't do that," Damon grumbled.

"Ha! Have you met you?"

Grinning, Damon pinched her ass.

"Tell me the truth…do you hate being what you are?"

Ezra had asked that question of her as they stood on Kingsmaker Bluff, the iron safe sinking to the bottom of the lake with a pleasant sucking and gurgling sound.

"I don't hate what I am. I just hate that I've never got to really do anything with my magic besides let other people, both living and dead, control it."

"The best thing we can do for ourselves is be who we really are."

Bonnie turned her head, owl-like in its ease of rotating on her shoulders, "That's if you know who you are. Do you know who you are?"

Ezra wormed his tongue inside his cheek. Shook his head. "I'm still discovering my nature.

"How's that working out for you?"

"It's a sluggish process. I'm assuming this is the first time you've had to go this hardcore on someone?" Ezra raised a pointed brow.

"On someone I loved, yeah. I don't have much in the way of family, I never have. My friends were…they meant everything to me. She," Bonnie hitched her chin toward the quarry, "was the most important person in my life after my Grams and Dad—"

"Even before your mother?"

"Even before her and that's a story for another day…Maybe, maybe everything was boiling down to this point. I don't know. What was that quote from The Dark Knight? 'You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.' She's become the latter."

"Thank you."

Ezra's appreciation made her snap her head toward him. Brow knitted together in confusion.

He clarified at her puzzled expression. "For sharing that with me. Given everything I've told you about myself…you didn't have to."

She studied him for a moment. "Will you tell me more about who you are…one day?"

The sound of pool balls smashing into one another drew Bonnie out of her reverie. Her eyes immediately darted to Ezra who looked right at her as if he knew the exact memory she had been engrossed in.

She motioned with her head for him to step aside from the table. "We're taking a break," she announced to Damon and Stefan.

Bonnie and Ezra went to the lounge area and had a seat in a pair of available leather armchairs. She rubbed the sweat from her palms on her jeans unsure of where to start.

"That's a very pretty ring," he opened up. "Can I see?"

Bonnie stretched out her hand, and tried not to flinch when Ezra lightly gripped her fingers to draw her closer. "It was a gift."

"From the vampire?"

She nodded and withdrew her hand disregarding the note of censure she heard in his voice. "Tell me something. How do you feel about vampires?"

Ezra lounged back in the chair, stretched out his long legs, and crossed them at the ankle. "Thankfully my contact with them has been minimal, but my few experiences with vamps, varied depending on the vamp. I'm still alive so I guess that counts for something, but I never let my guard down or fooled myself into thinking they were my friends. Staying out of their business is impossible since they seem to be addicted to dragging us into their shit. But if we don't check them, who will?"

Bonnie briefly glanced toward Damon who was scowling. Stefan on the other hand pulled an Alonzo Mourning. Shook his head in dismay before nodding in agreement.

"What's your opinion of them?" Ezra tossed the question right back.

"At first I was terrified of them. I couldn't understand how something dead was alive. You read the novels, watch the movies but it doesn't prepare you for coming face to face with the real thing. Then my fear turned to anger, hate. It took my best friend dying and still being herself, after she got a handle on her bloodlust, for me to realize they could be more than just evil predators who fuck up lives. Some hold on to their humanity though that number is very small in the vampires I've interacted with. Now I'm in love with one," Bonnie ended on a bemused note.

A soft look of affection passed between Damon and Bonnie, Ezra noted as he sucked his tooth.

"I have the letters if you want to read them," he switched gears. "Or I can call my mom right now and you can talk to her. Whichever route makes you comfortable."

His offer threw Bonnie for a second until she remembered the real reason she had asked him to come here. "None of this is making me comfortable but life isn't about being comfortable, right? I think I should start with the letters."

"I'll be right back."

A minute later Ezra returned with a parcel held together by twine. He handed the bundle to Bonnie.

"I'm curious," Ezra leaned his elbow on the arm of the leather chair, "if the Rudy who wrote those letters to my mom was the same Rudy in real life. I hope you can tell me when you've had a chance to read them."

Bonnie kept her eyes on the parcel when she said, "Do you think…if my dad had known about you that he would have wanted to be a part of your life?"

"I want to believe he'd do the right thing, but for some men the romance ends when an unexpected pregnancy happens."

"Would you be willing to take a DNA test?"

Ezra nodded.

"Then we should arrange that as soon as possible. In the meantime, I can tell you a little bit more about my dad."

"I'd like that."

Bonnie and Ezra talked for an hour or so, their conversation hopping from one topic of discussion to another before he got a call that had him ending the night. Damon joined her, exchanging places with Bonnie on the chair who snuggled up on his lap and into his chest.

"Gilbert Jr. is giving us dirty looks."

"He's still here?"

Bonnie awkwardly looked over her shoulder. Saw burning brown orbs searing her down, stripping her of every layer of skin to reach bone. Part of her wanted to throw gasoline on the fire by winking and smiling, but giving Jeremy that much attention would send the message she actually cared about inciting a reaction out of him. That wasn't the case. If he refused to heed what she said about what would happen to any who tried to save Elena, he deserved his fate as far as she was concerned. It wasn't on her to guard him from his own stupidity any longer.

"Let him look," Bonnie swiveled her head back around, stared up at her boyfriend. "All he's gonna do is give himself a headache."

Damon smiled and snuck his fingers between Bonnie's. He turned serious for a minute. "I did my best not to eavesdrop too much on your talk with Ezra, but how are you feeling about it?"

"I want to believe he's being genuine. I don't think he's after anything besides getting to know me. I'm still gonna be cautious until we do this DNA test and get the results back. Did you have fun playing pool with Stefan?"

"Eh, he cheats."

"Says the cheater. Did he like his present?"

"I love it!" Stefan shouted from across the bar.

Bonnie laughed.

"Are you ready to get out of here?" Damon queried. "I'm ready to go back to the house, and pick up where we left off last night."

"Sounds like a plan but first we need to go to the cabin so I can pack a bag for Caroline and take it to the border."

"Dammit. All right. Now that you mention it I have a stop I need to make too."

"What kind of stop?"

"Here," he dug the keys to his car out of his pocket and dropped them in Bonnie's palm. "I'm going to catch a ride with Stefan."

"Yeah, you still haven't answered my question. What stop are you making?"

Damon quickly pulled his lips down at the corners, a maneuver he pulled whenever he was being evasive. "A quick one," he smacked a kiss on Bonnie's cheek then her lips. "I'll see you at the house."

After seeing Bonnie to the car, the elder Salvatore snuck up behind his brother who was macking on a cute brunette whose eyes were thankfully blue and not brown. "Hate to interrupt but remember that crazy idea I was talking about the other day? You know the one about digging up mom?"

"Damon, really? Right now?" Stefan said incredulously with a vicious look that communicated how long it had been since he had sex and Damon was essentially cockblocking.

Attempting to look regretful was not a skill Damon mastered but he tried his best to look apologetic. He gripped Stefan's shoulder and spoke at a decibel only vampires could hear, "Compel her digits…"

"Hey, I do like doing things the old fashioned way. This seriously can't wait until later or like never?"

"No," Damon growled. "The sooner we get this done the quicker one of my main questions can be answered. Things might appear as if they've been put on pause but you know shit is about to hit the fan because it always does. Please."

Jaw tensing, Stefan's hold on his beer bottle tightened. He sighed heavily. He could feel his resolve weakening mainly due to the fact Damon was begging and Damon rarely, if ever, begged. Unless he was desperate and out of options. And, Stefan couldn't deny there was a piece of him doggedly curious if somehow his mother was turned and lived this day as a vampire. What would be the odds?

"The shit I let you talk me into," Stefan mumbled unhappily. He stared at the young and pretty coed who shyly tucked a strand of chestnut hair behind her pierced ear. He stared at her intently but refused to chip into her free will. "I hate to end things prematurely, but I gotta run an errand with my brother. Is it all right if I call you sometime?"

"Sure, totally," she quickly whipped her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and input Stefan's number into her contacts. "I'll shoot you a text."

"It was nice to meet you, Eve."

The two exchanged a brief hug before Stefan fell into step with Damon, the brothers heading out into the frigid air.

"Eve?" Damon swung his head toward his little brother.

"Good thing my name's not Adam," he got behind the wheel, fired up the engine. "Does Bonnie know about this dummy mission you have us going on?"

Damon situated himself in the passenger seat, "Not at the moment but I do plan to tell her."

"Right." The skepticism was thick in Stefan's timbre. "What do you think of Ezra? He seems pretty chill."

"Don't they all in the beginning. His arrival in Bonnie's life is of course suspect. I'm not totally sold on the idea that they're related, and I'm not going to be that white guy who thinks because they are the same race that automatically makes them kin. But it's not me he has to prove his story to," Damon paused. "He saved my girl…"

"She's your girl now?" Stefan made a right out of the parking lot and sped down the road. There was a twinkle in his eye and a smug smile he didn't try to fight from forming on his lips. "I mean, I know it's kind of obvious because you couldn't go five seconds without kissing some part of her. You're sickening, you know that right?"

"Runs in the family. And speaking of family, how do you think you're gonna feel when we dig up mama and she's not in her box?"

Hunching a shoulder, Stefan merged on to the highway and gunned it to Mystic Falls. "I won't know until we get to that bridge and cross it. How are you gonna feel?"

Damon nibbled the inside of his cheek and repeated the last thing he said to Bonnie before they were consumed into overwhelmingly white-blue light, "I don't know."

Eyes could not see, ears could not hear, but the soul could sense something strange was happening in the center of town. The majestic brick buildings that populated Main Street were empty apart from the occasional worker logging in overtime hours. The area was well-lit. A patrol car cruised west, clouds of exhaust wafting from the tailpipe. It disappeared around a corner. A few more cars sped through the area, music thumping loud enough that if anyone was walking down the sidewalk they might be able to identify the song, perhaps even sing along. The benches around the grassy knoll across from the clock tower were covered with a dusting of frost, storefront windows were fogging up.

Several feet above street level, translucent beings began appearing one by one along the buildings ledges. Ten, twenty, fifty, more. Their forms were no more solid than smoke. Grey skinned, silver eyes, blue-black hair they were terrifying in their beauty, deadly if you came across them. For the moment they were mere spectators.

Missing persons Cherise Tomlinson, Jayson Fell, and five others stood on the roof of the second tallest building. Words and sounds from a language long dead flowed like a hymn as they walked in a circle, switched direction, circled again, and reversed once more. Each footstep caused a dent in the concrete rooftop to form. Within minutes a symbol had been molded into the ground. The outliers appeared, their rotted bodies reeking of putrid stench, tattered clothes eaten by maggots and moths. They watched dead-eyed, silent and immobile.

The host known as Cherise surveyed the outliers, those who had been dead and resurrected with the spirit of a revenant. Among them was Jenna Sommers and standing beside her was Logan Fell. Across from him was Rose. The rest were Klaus' hybrids. There were nine of them in total. They spread themselves out forming a circle. Still. Like statutes.

Simultaneously, the outliers' mouths opened. Their jaws widened beyond what would be humanly and even supernaturally possible. The skin, what skin remained stretched grotesquely as if their flesh had become play-doh. If anyone were to look down their throats they'd be welcomed to a sea of black. Out poured blood.

The blood, like a sentient being rushed toward the track carved into the rooftop. The revenants looking on began to rustle and quake with excitement. Juddered and hissed.

'Cherise' smiled and watched like a diligent parent as the blood filled every nook and cranny of the symbol. She looked east, waited. The church bell tolled. Heads craned toward the sky, a chorus of words in a language long dead like the city of Pompeii rang out. A surge was happening. Power was being recalled, released, and recycled.

Sparks flew from the lamp posts, a fire hydrant burst and dumped gallons of water across the street, flooded the sidewalk; the hands of the clock tower slowed and then began to whirl faster and faster until they were a blur. The church bell never stopped tolling and the revenants never stopped chanting.

Their eyes glowed brighter and their bodies became more substantial. Some began to examine the changes within themselves, while the rest remained focused on the task at hand: destroy that which kept them locked up for centuries.

"More…we need more," 'Cherise' demanded of her companions, of the elements themselves, of everything.

She knew exactly where to borrow it from. The many, many lifeforms of Mystic Falls.

Traffic was light on the way to and from the cabin and heading to Mystic Falls. The cars on the road made Bonnie feel less lonely but not any less apprehensive. Her muscles were taut. Her body was giving off signals that she needed to pay attention to. If she were to roll down the windows she wondered if she would feel an unmistakable density to their air. Would there be a unique smell though she could say categorically magic didn't smell like anything but the natural perfume of the earth multiplied by a thousand. She was on edge and hated the feeling, couldn't dislodge it like a garment that was itchy and uncomfortable.

It could be nothing. Could be a benign feeling because it was Mystic Falls.

She knew better than that.

It was déjà vu, pulling to the shoulder and coming to a stop several feet from the "Welcome to Mystic Falls" sign. The difference this time she was alone. Bonnie grabbed the duffel bag and hoisted it and herself out of the car. The cold nearly made her shoulders touch her ears. It was that brittle.

She called Caroline to let her know she was at the border. In five minutes or less she should meet her for the exchange.

The temperature continued to plummet. Bonnie smelled snow in the air.

Snow and something…sickeningly sweet. A zing spiraled down her spine that had her jumping and dropping the bag. Bonnie frantically looked around but the area was deserted, and that tension she felt on the drive to her old hometown had ratcheted up. Inescapable.

The wind wrapped around her choking her for a moment, released her, and told her to look up.

Her jaw dropped.

The best way to describe what Bonnie was seeing was like watching lights coming on, on an energy grip. A maze of lights poking through the night sky starting from one central spot before fanning outward like a ripple.

"Shit."

The barrier was coming down. It was being splintered, cracked open.

And she had no idea how to stop it.

Could she plug it? Did she even know how to do that? Caroline was coming but she couldn't let her leave the hospital because who knew what would happen to her?

"Shit," Bonnie cursed again.

At the hospital, Caroline had just donned her jacket to go and meet Bonnie. She leaned over Liz's bed to kiss her cheek when the lights flickered and the machines monitoring the sheriff's vitals beeped crazily. Caroline halted, waited to see if the glitch would pass and if things would return to normal. The machines never ceased their maddening beeping.

Liz was going into cardiac arrest.

"MOM!"

Unfortunately Liz wasn't the only one.

Bonnie wrung her hands, thinking. She went through the grimoire in her mind back and forward and was coming up empty. If she siphoned traveler magic she had nowhere to put it and it needed to go somewhere. Yet siphoning the barrier would only help the revenants escape and that couldn't happen under any circumstances. Here she was again, standing on the pointed end of a knife.

Time was wasting and that hole was getting bigger. Finally a solution sprung to her mind. Would it work? Only one way to find out. Bonnie stretched out her hands, closed her eyes. She thought dome. She thought vault. She thought safe.

As she fought for Mystic Falls, Caroline rushed in to save its sheriff.

'Cherise' looked to the east, felt the interference.

A vein bulged down the center of Bonnie's forehead that was beginning to dot with sweat. She was doing this wrong. She knew she was. She was exerting too much but not fast enough. The spell, not hers but the one she was fighting, there were too many tethers it was like climbing through a thistle bush. But Bonnie pushed on. Kept going. Kept growing the barrier to go over the one that was being peeled open banana style.

"You meddle with things that are not your concern, witch."

The voice snapped Bonnie out of the spell. Her eyes widened at the figure in front of her that made her shiver mainly in part because the woman was underdressed for the cold. A black woman, barefoot and in a dress with no sleeves or coat with glowing mercury eyes stood opposite of Bonnie, glaring balefully.

A traveler possessed revenant, the young witch thought somewhat in a daze. Bonnie wondered if the actual owner of the body was dead. What would happen to her when the revenant got whatever it wanted? Or was it planning on becoming a permanent resident in the body it stole? Bonnie felt her anger renewing. Her breath quickened as blood rushed in her ears.

"Turn away," the woman said though her lips barely moved. It almost seemed her voice came from her chest and not through her mouth.

"I'm not letting you out. I know what you are."

The woman's head tilted at a dangerous, unnatural angle. "You cannot stop what has already begun."

"Watch me." Bonnie didn't budge. Not even when the woman spread her hands, which hung at her sides, as far as they could expand without the bones popping.

"I think you could use this."

Bonnie's head whipped toward the new voice. It was another woman. This one white with a familiar pair of blue eyes. Something metal and shiny dangled from her fingers that when Bonnie focused on it she saw it was Esther's talisman. "Who the hell are you?"

"A ghost."